1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention relate to a system and method for providing a search result obtained by searching a surrounding area based on a reference location.
2. Description of the Related Art
Currently, with the development in information technology, a geographic information system (GIS) in which various types of geographic information is provided in a database has been widely used. Location information, such as latitude, longitude, and an address, may be easily retrieved through the GIS.
In general, the GIS may collect geographic data from, for example, a public institution and a geographic information server, may convert the geographic data to an appropriate map formatted image, and may provide the converted map formatted image to a user.
Meanwhile, a navigation system refers to a system configured to provide information for driving of a transportation device, such as a vehicle, using an artificial satellite. The navigation system may include a global positioning system (GPS) receiver to receive predetermined data from a GPS satellite orbiting around the earth, and to calculate a location of the navigation system based on the received data.
The navigation system may provide a variety of services, such as a location service for notifying a user about a current location of a vehicle, a routing service for calculating an optimal path to a desired destination, and a guidance service for guiding the vehicle along the calculated path.
The GIS and the navigation system may provide a surrounding area search function for searching for points of interest (POIs) located around a predetermined location, for example, a reference location. For example, Korean Patent No. 10-0948773 discloses a technology for searching for POIs of a predetermined item located around a path between a departure and a destination.
For example, referring to FIG. 1, when searching for “gasoline station” located around “Central Market”, “Central Market” in Seoul becomes a reference location and gasoline stations located around the reference location are provided as a search result 100.
However, when “Central Market” is retrieved at a plurality of locations as a search result, an issue may arise in a process of selecting a reference location. As a matter of fact, POIs with the name of “Central Market” are present at a plurality of locations, for example, “Hwanghak-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul” and “Taepeong-dong, Wansan-gu, Jeonju”.
As described above, when a plurality of reference locations is retrieved, a reference location located nearest to a current location of a vehicle may be selected. Alternatively, a famous POI or a predetermined POI may be selected as a reference location. That is, a search result about POIs based on a single reference location may be provided by determining a single reference location from among the plurality of reference locations.
Since a POI is retrieved based on a single reference location, a search may, frequently, not be conducted at a reference location desired by a user. Accordingly, it may not be possible to guarantee the accuracy and the reliability of a surrounding area search result.